Dive Brief:
- A NextEra Energy Resources subsidiary won approval from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to build a 300 MW battery energy storage project at a solar farm in California’s desert.
- The Sunlight Storage II Battery Energy Storage System project in Riverside County will increase energy storage for the 550 MW Desert Sunlight Solar Farm. The BLM announced June 2 it issued a Notice to Proceed with construction.
- The project, which would be within the fence line of the solar farm, would increase the project’s total storage capacity to 530 MW when completed, the BLM said. A spokeswoman said in an email the project could be operating as soon as April.
Dive Insight:
The newest project will add to the 230 MW Desert Sunlight Battery Energy Storage System that BLM said in August was fully operational. It’s on 94 acres of BLM-managed public land near Desert Center in Riverside County.
All Desert Sunlight Solar facilities, including the newly-approved Sunlight Storage II Battery Energy Storage System, are in an area analyzed and identified as suitable for renewable energy development in BLM’s Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, which is focused on 10.8 million acres of public land in the desert regions of seven California counties.
The plan streamlines renewable energy development, while conserving desert ecosystems and providing outdoor recreation opportunities, the BLM said. To approve these sites for renewable energy projects, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the BLM work with other federal agencies, tribal governments, local communities and state regulators.
“To promote the development of these energy sources, the BLM provides sites for environmentally sound development of renewable energy on public lands,” the agency said.
This project is a part of the Biden administration’s efforts to build clean energy resources on public land in order to develop a carbon-free electricity system by 2035. The Energy Act of 2020 calls for 25 GW of solar, wind and geothermal production on federal land no later than 2025.
The U.S. Department of Energy in 2011 issued two partial loan guarantees of $1.5 billion under the Financial Institution Partnership Program to finance Desert Sunlight, which is owned by NextEra, General Electric and Sumitomo of America and reached full commercial operations in January 2015.
